"The question is are we now moving into the territory in
trying to produce growth out of nowhere we are in fact shifting
growth from each other, rather than creating growth. Of course,
there is past history of this during the Great Depression when we
got into competitive devaluation."

He went on:

"We have to become more aware of the spill-over effects of
our actions and the rules of the game that we have — of what is
allowed and what is not allowed — needs to be revisited."

Rajan has warned before about the lack of coordination between
the expansionary policies of central banks around the world. The
specific period in history he's referencing here is the
competitive devaluation (sometimes called a currency war) that
was seen after countries came off the gold standard in the 1930s.

Devaluing a currency, which was no longer pegged to the value of
gold, became a quick and easy way to get an economic boost,
benefiting that country's exporters. But that prompted something
of an arms race, with countries racing to devalue ahead of each
other.

There are no specific currencies mentioned, but Rajan might
well be thinking of the recent slump in the value of the euro,
which has declined nearly one-fifth in dollar terms since April
last year. He might also be thinking of the Japanese yen, which
has dropped by more than one-quarter against the dollar since the
election of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who promised fiscal and
monetary stimulus.

Those are factors that have weighed on the Federal Reserve as it
decides when to hike interest rates for the first time since the
crisis.

Rajan also undoubtedly has concerns about the effects of monetary
policy in advanced countries on emerging markets like India. In
February he complained that "when
elephants fight the grass suffers."